Human rights campaigners condemn 'political deal' protecting army despite Mohamed Morsi's promise of retribution
Throughout his campaign for president last summer, Mohamed Morsi promised justice for the civilians martyred around the time of the Egyptian revolution.
For it was not just during the 2011 uprising but for months afterwards that accounts emerged of abuse by the military. Soldiers were involved in several bloody crackdowns following the fall of Hosni Mubarak, when the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) took control of the country.
Army troops violently dispersed several protests in Tahrir Square and, in one incident admitted by the ruling generals, sexually assaulted female protesters under the guise of "virginity checks". Soldiers attacked a mostly Coptic Christian protest at the state media headquarters in October 2011, killing nearly 30 people, and stormed another protest outside the parliament and cabinet buildings two months later, killing nearly 20.
One man was tried and acquitted in connection with the sexual assaults, and three conscripts were convicted and sentenced to two- to three-year prison terms after the bloodshed at the state media building.
During his victory speech on 29 June, Morsi told a teeming crowd in Tahrir Square that he would ensure that those responsible for atrocities were brought to justice.
"I will not give up the rights of our martyrs and wounded. Fair retribution for them is my responsibility, which I will not shirk," he said. "I will always be the first supporter of the revolution, so it should continue everywhere in the farthest corners of the homeland."
Six days after his speech, Morsi issued presidential decision No 10, appointing the fact-finding committee and empowering its members to investigate violence from the beginning of the revolution until his election and make recommendations to the government.
In addition to human rights lawyers and attorneys representing the martyrs' families, the committee included an army major general, the deputy prosecutor general, the assistant interior minister for public security, and the national security chairman of the General Intelligence Service.
The following month, Morsi retired the longtime defence minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Scaf, as well as his chief of staff and other Scaf members, while issuing a constitutional declaration stripping the military of powers it had given itself to write legislation and play a role in drafting the new constitution.
Many activists expressed hope that Morsi, riding a wave of electoral legitimacy, would follow through on his summer promises, rein in the military's powers, and perhaps even investigate high-ranking officers.
But in late November Morsi issued a new declaration granting himself and the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated constitutional assembly immunity from a judiciary that seemed ready to halt their efforts.
A week later, the assembly approved a constitution that enshrined the military's most important privileges: a defence minister selected from among serving officers; budget and war-making decisions delegated to a National Defence Council stacked with generals; and sole authority to investigate and prosecute its own members. Military trials of civilians, which had been outlawed in previous drafts of the constitution, were restored in cases that "hurt the armed forces".
To critics, the constitution appeared to close a long-planned deal between the Brotherhood and the armed forces that allowed the military a "safe exit" in exchange for chaperoning a transitional period that delivered a civilian government dominated by the Brotherhood.
"I was naive in being excited," said Heba Morayef, of Human Rights Watch, adding that she believed Morsi had "no political will" to prosecute the police, much less the armed forces. "The military is back to where it was under Mubarak, except their privileges are now enshrined in the constitution … It was a very well-planned and well-executed political deal."
